Terminal grounding structures composed of insulated housings that enclose metal grounding members are known. The housing is typically made of plastic and is dedicated to housing the metal grounding member. The housing and the grounding member are intended to be mounted on an elongate metal grounding rail such as a DIN rail. An end of the grounding member latches onto the rail when the housing is mounted on the rail. The other end of the grounding member is formed as an electrical terminal for connecting a wire or other conductor of an electrical circuit to ground the electrical circuit to the grounding rail. A number of housings can be mounted on the rail for grounding a number of different electrical circuits.
Examples of such terminal grounding structures are disclosed in Wu et al, U.S. Pat. No. 7,686,627 and Wu U.S. Pat. No. 7,922,521.
Yet other housings include pre-formed electrical connector halves carried in the housings that mate with corresponding connector halves of electrical components to form electrical connections. The housing connector half includes pins or sockets that cooperate with matching sockets or pins of the electrical component to form electrical connections. Some of the pins or sockets of the housing connector half are electrically connected to a grounding member carried in the housing to form a ground connection between the electrical component and the grounding rail in addition to the other electrical connections. The relative locations of the connector half of the electronic component is fixed by the location of the connector half in the housing.
An example of such a housing is disclosed in Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co. DE 4303717 A1.
Other housings are designed for carrying electronic components such as printed circuit boards (PCBs). An example is the UM-PRO™ housing sold by the applicant and shown in FIG. 24. The housing has a housing body 210 having opposed, elongate profile rails 212, 214 that support opposite edges of a PCB 216. End covers 218, 220 attach to the ends of the housing body and include feet (not shown) that mount the housing to a DIN rail. One or both of the end covers 218, 220 can carry a grounding clip (not shown). The grounding clip is formed as a spring clamp that grips a flange of the DIN rail and includes an electrical terminal for electrical connection to a grounding terminal of the PCB. A grounding screw 222 is shown connecting the electrical terminal of a grounding clip carried by the end cover 218 to the grounding terminal of the PCB.
Because the ground clip is mounted at an end of the housing, the grounding terminal of the PCB carried by the housing 210 is required to be adjacent to an end of the housing.
Yet other housings for electrical components utilize a modular housing in which the housing is formed from discrete housing modules or “slices”, each slice having a relatively thin thickness. The slices are mounted side by side to form a stack of housing slices that are mounted on the grounding rail. The slices are relatively thin along the stack, and so housings can be formed to receive electronic components of different lengths by varying the number of slices. The relatively thin slice thickness results in minimal wasted space along the rail. End covers close the exposed sides of the housing slices at the ends of the stack.
Each housing slice includes contact terminals and electrical conductors extending from the terminals that form electrical connections with corresponding contacts or vias on a portion of the electronic component adjacent the housing terminals. An examples of such a modular housing is disclosed in Correll, U.S. Pat. No. 7,462,063 “Modular Terminal Block”, which patent is owned by the applicant and is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.